Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud review – the best album of the year so far
With tracks that nestle in heartache and bask in hard-won wisdom, this is an artefact of American song that measures up to Dylan at his peak - Ben Beaumont-Thomas
starstarstarstarstarChildish Gambino: 3.15.20 review – at the peak of the zeitgeist
The actor, comedian and musician Donald Glover has made the first truly outstanding album of the decade, offsetting cultural examinations with moments of sweet levity - Dean Van Nguyen
starstarstarstarstarEpic: Lieder & Balladen review – a storytelling masterclass
Degout/Lepper(Harmonia Mundi)From Schubert’s murderous dwarf to similarly dark works by Schumann and Brahms, Degout and Lepper provide impeccable drama on a superb album - Erica Jeal
starstarstarstarstarCode Orange: Underneath review – a thrilling new form of molten metal
The Pittsburgh quintet marry technical mastery with genre-fusing risk in a record of poetry and spectacular potency - Ben Beaumont-Thomas
starstarstarstarstarSchoenberg: Violin Concerto; Verklärte Nacht review – fabulous colour and nuance
Faust/Swedish RSO/Harding(Harmonia Mundi)Isabelle Faust’s performance of Schoenberg’s violin concerto is exceptional, and Daniel Harding matches her in musical understanding - Andrew Clements
starstarstarstarstarCaribou: Suddenly review – perfectly imperfect pop
Dan Snaith’s project returns after five years away to confront grief and family, beautifully warping songs that are drenched in melody - Alexis Petridis
starstarstarstarstarBeatrice Dillon: Workaround review – a global future-folk manifesto
These exuberant electronic experiments in mixing 150bpm dub-techno with live instrumentation fizz with the joy of artistic creation - Tayyab Amin
starstarstarstarstarShabaka and the Ancestors: We Are Sent Here By History review – shamanic lyricism
(Impulse) - Neil Spencer
starstarstarstarstarSkepta, Chip and Young Adz: Insomnia review – dark, funny and perfectly timed
Two grime veterans and the drawling D-Block Europe member team up to create a slow-paced record that feels calibrated for the cultural moment - Aimee Cliff
starstarstarstarstarThe Chats: High Risk Behaviour review – dorkish fun from Aussie pub poets
The Queensland rockers prove that it takes a lot of musical skill to sound so gleefully stupid in this witty debut - Dave Simpson
starstarstarstarstarDua Lipa: Future Nostalgia review – a true pop visionary
Britain’s biggest female star tightens her grip on the crown with a viscerally brilliant second album - Laura Snapes
starstarstarstarstarWu Fei and Abigail Washburn: Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn review – transcendent and blissful
The two musicians seamlessly merge folk traditions from China and the US, on an album deserving mainstream recognition - Jude Rogers
starstarstarstarstarLa Passione review – Grisey's masterpiece endures
Hannigan conducts and sings Gérard Grisey’s final prescient work with style, conceiving it as a triptych with works by Haydn and Luigi Nono - Andrew Clements
starstarstarstarstarPearl Jam: Gigaton review – grunge gurus revel in the end times
Fans wanting soaring choruses won’t be disappointed. But the fixation on an uneasy future gives the veteran band currency - Alexis Petridis
starstarstarstarstarJ Balvin: Colores review – a riot of hooks and ideas
(Universal Music Latino) - Michael Cragg
starstarstarstarstarLåpsley: Through Water review – bedroom auteur’s potent follow-up
(XL) - Phil Mongredien
starstarstarstarstarRoger and Brian Eno: Mixing Colours review – an intimate conversation
(Deutsche Grammophon) - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarKenny Barron, Dave Holland, Johnathan Blake: Without Deception review – an outstanding trio
(Dare2) - Dave Gelly
starstarstarstarstarJessie Reyez: Before Love Came to Kill Us review – an outrageously fine debut
The Colombian-Canadian singer-songwriter delivers a deliciously dark debut - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarThe Weeknd: After Hours review – agile blend of usual sex and self-hate
Abel Tesfaye is starting to show remorse for his failed relationships – but only a little bit – on this wonderfully varied yet cohesive record - Michael Cragg
starstarstarstarstarBaxter Dury: The Night Chancers review – a grubbily compelling reality
Shunning big hooks and choruses, the indie raconteur turns his hand to immaculate character studies of life’s losers - Michael Hann
starstarstarstarstarLåpsley: Through Water review – intensely poetic and powerful
Låpsley’s second album is stripped of collaborators, but its clean aesthetic highlights the scars of real experience - Ben Beaumont-Thomas
starstarstarstarstarSam Gendel: Satin Doll review – a searing new language for sax
NonesuchThe risk-taking Californian pushes the boat out to glorious extremes in this collection of reinterpretations of jazz standards - Ammar Kalia
starstarstarstarstarDumama + Kechou: Buffering Juju review – a bewitching musical odyssey
A woman’s release from prison provides a folkloric story that drives the Johannesburg duo’s wonderfully inventive debut - Ammar Kalia
starstarstarstarstarPosadas: Poética del Laberinto review – musical myriads lit up by mythology
Sigma Project(Wergo) The Labyrinth, Escher’s unending stairs and a Borges story inform Posada’s three works for saxophone quartet, and Sigma Project find a huge range of effects with subtlety and detail - Andrew Clements
starstarstarstarstarPorridge Radio: Every Bad review – DIY rockers go from guttural to the stars
The Brighton band’s second album is spiky, strange and uncompromisingly brilliant. Can they drag the avant garde into the mainstream? - Alexis Petridis
starstarstarstarstarRiz Ahmed: The Long Goodbye review – a breakup album is hard to do
(Mongrel) - Tara Joshi
starstarstarstarstarUS Girls: Heavy Light review – a major talent doubles down
(4AD) - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarCarla Bley Trio: Life Goes On review – warm, spirited and even funny
(ECM) - Dave Gelly
starstarstarstarstarDisq: Collector review – bedroom rockers mope towards majesty
The twentysomething indie band sulk in style with an endearing album full of nostalgia and bruised naivety - Ben Beaumont-Thomas
starstarstarstarstarPat Metheny: From This Place review – wide-horizons music with freewheeling relish
Metheny’s superb band crack through his postbop experiments, unrehearsed, and the addition of orchestral arrangements broadens the appeal - John Fordham
starstarstarstarstarRiz Ahmed: The Long Goodbye review – breaking up with a racist Britain
The Four Lions and Star Wars actor has made a harsh, funny, vehement rap record about falling out of love with a country you no longer recognise - Alexis Petridis
starstarstarstarstarMoses Sumney: Grae review – double album’s stunning first instalment
(Jagjaguwar) - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarGrimes: Miss Anthropocene review – a deep, dark trip
(4AD) - Emily Mackay
starstarstarstarstarThe Lost Brothers: After the Fire After the Rain review – a hymn to Ireland
(Bird Dog) - Neil Spencer
starstarstarstarstarSleater-Kinney review: an all-change powerhouse of a gig
The latest incarnation of the Portland-bred sisterhood are on devastating form - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarHaleek Maul: Errol review – rapper rattles past teen angst
The young Bajan-American highlights his patois-influenced delivery on a fantastically unpredictable debut full-length - Ammar Kalia
starstarstarstarstarSoccer Mommy: Color Theory review – grief and depression given glorious voice
(Concord)Sophie Allison’s second album deals with ill-health and despair, but you would hardly know it from the fantastic arrangements and tunes - Michael Hann
starstarstarstarstarKing Krule: Man Alive! review – stirring, dreamy optimism
(XL) - Tara Joshi
starstarstarstarstarPete Whittaker, Art Themen, George Double: Thane & the Villeins review – masterly medieval larks
(Hadleigh Jazz) - Dave Gelly
starstarstarstarstarBest Coast: Always Tomorrow review – former slackers knuckle down in style
The duo show why they’ve outlasted their beach-bum peers with a delightful study of reinvention and contentment - Laura Snapes
starstarstarstarstarPulled By Magnets: Rose Golden Doorways review – an ear-tricking blizzard of sound
Seb Rochford’s new trio deploy effects-laden instruments to play sludge rock disguised as ambience. It’s … unique - John Lewis
starstarstarstarstarBezuidenhout: Beethoven Piano Concertos 2 and 5 review – boisterous and charming
Bezuidenhout/Heras-Casado/Freiburger Barockorchester(Harmonia Mundi) Kristian Bezuidenhout and Pablo Heras-Casado make these concertos sing in readings that feel both freewheeling and profound - Erica Jeal
starstarstarstarstarGrimes: Miss Anthropocene review – a toxicity report on modern celebrity
Notionally a concept album about the goddess of climate crisis, the Canadian’s fifth album is actually a compellingly chaotic statement about her own private life - Alexis Petridis
starstarstarstarstarBeach Bunny: Honeymoon review – a short, sweet blast of sunny indie-pop
(Mom + Pop) - Phil Mongredien
starstarstarstarstarMoses Boyd: Dark Matter review – party-facing solo debut
(Exodus) - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarTame Impala: The Slow Rush review – polished disco funk
Kevin Parker shifts further away from his psych rock roots, while pondering happiness and his continued relevance - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarMoses Boyd: Dark Matter review – dancefloor-friendly kaleidoscopic jazz from UK drummer
(Exodus)He’s known as a jazz stalwart but this album brings Boyd’s nuanced production skills to the fore in artfully spliced, stylish tracks - Ammar Kalia
starstarstarstarstarTame Impala: The Slow Rush review – a stunning explosion of heartfelt pop
Perth’s disco dork returns after a four-year hiatus with an album that hunts for existential meaning in genre-surfing dance music - Dave Simpson
starstarstarstarstarDJ Diaki: Balani Fou review – landslide of rhythms brings Africa to the dancefloor
DJ Diaki’s debut is a speeding cascade of sound that skilfully re-creates the pounding atmosphere of Malian street party Balani Show - Ammar Kalia
starstarstarstarstarSibelius: Symphonies 4 & 6 review – grandeur, warmth and flashes of exuberance completes cycle
Hallé/Elder (Hallé)Mark Elder and the Hallé bring a sympathetic, powerful character to Sibelius’s enigmatic symphonies - Andrew Clements
starstarstarstarstarGreen Day: Father of All Motherfuckers review – apolitical angst with aplomb
(Warner) - Phil Mongredien
starstarstarstarstarKaren Sharp Trio: Another Place review – three is the magic number
(KLS) - Dave Gelly
starstarstarstarstarHMLTD: West of Eden review – riotous rock and grand guignol glam
The London band throw together glam, goth, electro, Kurt Weill … and have even added conventional pop to the mix - Michael Hann
starstarstarstarstarMakaya McCraven and Gil Scott-Heron: We're New Here review – a modern classic revived
Jazz drummer and beat-maker McCraven beautifully reworks Scott-Heron’s 10-year-old album I’m New Here, resituating the poet in the improvisatory tradition - Ammar Kalia
starstarstarstarstarLa Roux: Supervision review – obliquely beautiful, contrarian electro visionary
(Supercolour Records) Her second release as a solo artist sees 80s pop muted though Elly Jackson’s idiosyncratic and unique sound palette - Rachel Aroesti
starstarstarstarstarIssie Barratt's Interchange: Donna's Secret review – big-band visions
The all-female Interchange band brings together jazz luminaries under Barratt’s assured leadership on this powerful album - John Fordham
starstarstarstarstarEscales: Orchestral Works by Chabrier, Debussy, Duruflé, etc review – refined and stylish playing
Sinfonia of London/John Wilson (Chandos) The selection of familiar and less-so works by turn of the 20th-century French composers are played with subtlety and colour - Andrew Clements
starstarstarstarstarFrazey Ford: U Kin B the Sun review – bright shoots from knotted roots of American song
The former Be Good Tanyas member develops her intimate version of southern soul – but fills it with strife from relationship breakdowns to gun issues - Alexis Petridis
starstarstarstarstarKesha: High Road review – back in the driver’s seat
(RCA) - Michael Cragg
starstarstarstarstarJ Hus: Big Conspiracy review – reflective but still reckless
(Black Butter) - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarSam Lee: Old Wow review – a dazzling fusion of nature and song
Lee pursues his twin passions on this fine third album - Neil Spencer
starstarstarstarstarSam Lee: Old Wow review – Britain's nature crisis in gnarly song
Lee’s twee-free third album, produced by Bernard Butler and featuring Liz Fraser, is a stark reminder of this country’s environmental concerns - Jude Rogers
starstarstarstarstarClairières: Songs by Lili and Nadia Boulanger review – perfect advocacy for sibling composers
Tenor Nicholas Phan and pianist Myra Hang do perfect justice to vocal works by the Boulanger sisters, illustrating their contrasting stylistic leanings - Andrew Clements
starstarstarstarstarDestroyer: Have We Met review – synth-pop adventures in small-hours terror
Dan Bejar seems to be channelling superficially shiny 80s pop but beneath the surface there is the same alarm. Off-beam and compelling - Alexis Petridis
starstarstarstarstarWaxahatchee: Saint Cloud review – fierce and ambitious but hard to love
(Merge) - Jude Rogers
starstarstarstarstarSorry: 925 review – full of disruptive ideas
(Domino) - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarYoung T & Bugsey: Plead the 5th review – champagne-soaked retro rap
The Nottingham duo’s first full-length ramps up their people-pleasing potential with indelible hooks, bubbling grooves and pan-continental sounds - Rachel Aroesti
starstarstarstarstarMeredith Monk: Memory Game review – passing her musical baton to the next generation
(Cantaloupe Music)The Bang on a Can All-Stars cover nine of Monk’s works for theatre with compelling authority, alongside her trusted Vocal Ensemble - John Lewis
starstarstarstarstarJ Balvin: Colores review – with this much style, who needs substance?
The Colombian returns with an album full of clever production touches and choruses that dig into your brain, but the music doesn’t really stand out - Alexis Petridis
starstarstarstarstarCocoRosie: Put the Shine On review: a return to core idiosyncrasies
(Marathon Artists) - Emily Mackay
starstarstarstarstarNiall Horan: Heartbreak Weather review – 1D’s quiet one comes good
(Capitol) - Michael Cragg
starstarstarstarstarNadia Reid: Out of My Province review – a thoroughly lovely record
(Spacebomb) - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarThe Boomtown Rats: Citizens of Boomtown review – nostalgia and toe-curling currentness
(BMG)Citizens of Boomtown has succeeds best when at its most understated. But then they added the rap track … - Michael Hann
starstarstarstarstarStephen Malkmus: Traditional Techniques review – an enjoyable take on early-70s psych-folk
(Domino) - Phil Mongredien
starstarstarstarstarGeorgia Ruth: Mai review – lush Welsh pastorals and other odes to spring
(Bubblewrap Collective) - Neil Spencer
starstarstarstarstarPaul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott: Manchester Calling review – rich vignettes on life's vagaries
Heaton and Abbott’s fourth album together finds them mulling the ups and downs of British life in gently acerbic style - Dave Simpson
starstarstarstarstarJhené Aiko: Chilombo review – sexual, spiritual and wildly over-long
Aiko’s third album documents the bitter dissolution of a relationship, but the final goodbye never really arrives - Laura Snapes
starstarstarstarstarBeethoven: Piano Sonatas – Staier's period instrument performances are thoughtful and insightful
Andreas Staier (Harmonia Mundi, two CDs) The three op 31 sonatas, all written in 1802, sound lean and coherent on an 1810 piano, if occasionally things feel a little too well-mannered - Andrew Clements
starstarstarstarstarCaribou: Suddenly review – dreamy meanderings from Dan Snaith
(City Slang) - Emily Mackay
starstarstarstarstarThe Orielles: Disco Volador review – taking cosmic pop to new galaxies
The Halifax trio experiment with different textures on their second album and their sharp songwriting leaves an impression - Laura Snapes
starstarstarstarstarVladislav Delay: Rakka review – techno from the end of the world
Inspired by the arctic tundra and the climate crisis, the Finnish producer’s angriest work to date is a mix of unstable, deconstructed beats and bludgeoning noise - Ben Beaumont-Thomas
starstarstarstarstarMyrkur: Folkesange review – Danish black metaller makes dense, intense folk
Amalie Bruun goes back to her roots in these new versions of Scandinavian traditional songs, played on mandolas, lyres and a nyckelharpa - Jude Rogers
starstarstarstarstarSightless Pit: Grave of a Dog review – witchy trio unleash hell
The underground supergroup bin their guitars in favour of obscure sound-making – and conjure a gloriously hellish mood - Ben Beaumont-Thomas
starstarstarstarstarOzzy Osbourne: Ordinary Man review – his final statement?
The elegiac lyrics on Osbourne’s 12th solo album stand in contrast with the off-the-cuff vibe of its music - Michael Hann
starstarstarstarstarJustin Bieber: Changes review – mid-tempo wedded bliss
The Canadian superstar is doing it for himself with an album of easygoing R&B - Michael Cragg
starstarstarstarstarSeth Lakeman: A Pilgrim’s Tale review – all aboard the Mayflower
Following in the wake of the Pilgrim fathers, the English folk star sees things from both sides of the Atlantic - Neil Spencer
starstarstarstarstarNathaniel Rateliff: And It's Still Alright review – a mixed bag of Americana
The rock journeyman goes it alone with a grief-imbued album that treads a thin line between meaningless and profound - Michael Hann
starstarstarstarstarKatie Gately: Loom review – nightmarish orchestrated despair
Earthquakes, shovels and screaming peacocks are all sampled in a bombastic and occasionally ingenious album - Ben Beaumont-Thomas
starstarstarstarstarJustin Bieber: Changes review – the sound of fame being shunned
He’s still one of the world’s biggest pop stars, but this subdued, fitfully lovely album suggests Bieber no longer wants to dominate the charts - Alexis Petridis
starstarstarstarstarShopping: All Or Nothing review – more frenetic and kinetic than ever
(FatCat) - Emily Mackay
starstarstarstarstarLil Wayne: Funeral review – fearsome and full of life
(Young Money/Republic) - Kitty Empire
starstarstarstarstarKesha: High Road review – bringing the girl back to the party
Kesha’s fourth album sees her return to her party-girl 2010s persona, full of glitter-pop but with a new self-awareness - Aimee Cliff
starstarstarstarstarSquarepusher: Be Up a Hello review – devilish, danceable return
Tom Jenkinson goes back to his mid-90s moniker and makes use of old electronic hardware in a fun, if bumpy, ride - Tayyab Amin
starstarstarstarstarPoliça: When We Stay Alive review – airs of elegant detachment
(Memphis Industries) - Phil Mongredien
starstarstarstarstarMorrissey: I Am Not a Dog on a Chain review – old man yells at cloud
The former Smiths man appoints himself as a bold truth-teller but fails to see some glaring truths about himself - Laura Snapes
starstarstarstarstarMaria McKee: La Vita Nuova review – Show Me Heaven singer's high-drama alt-rock
(AFAR)McKee’s new album follows some big life changes: coming out inspires and informs these rhapsodic, string-drenched songs - Laura Snapes
starstarstarstarstarReal Estate: The Main Thing review – artfully polished tedium
(Domino) - Phil Mongredien
starstarstarstarstarKing Krule: Man Alive! review – disgust, dissolution and despair
The south Londoner’s third album offers flashes of brilliance but is weighed down by a tone of gravelly gloom - Rachel Aroesti
starstarstarstarstarK Michelle: All Monsters Are Human review – slick R&B with a sharp whiff of smut
The Tennessean takes her no-filter frankness to new levels in this disconcerting chronicle of sex and heartbreak - Rachel Aroesti
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